Green marketing

Green Marketing

The Why and the How

fresh ideas.Dr. Joachim Scholz ; Queen’s School of Business

jscholz@business.queensu.ca joachim-scholz.com @joachimscholz n

The environmental crisis poses one of the biggest

threats to humankind.

Marketing is part of the problem.

MARKETING’S IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

✤ Stimulating (over-) consumption contributes to environmental degradation

✤ Marketing replaces more environmental goods to increase profit margins

✤ Unnecessary packaging contributes to environmental degradation

✤ Long supply chains increase carbon-dioxide footprint of products

Marketing can be part of the solution.

MARKETING PHILOSOPHIES

✤ Sustainable marketing concept: Sustainable marketing is the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and companies in such a way that both natural and human capital are preserved or enhanced throughout

✤ Environmental sustainability: Ongoing preservation of essential ecosystems and their functions

✤ Social sustainability: Ongoing ability of communities to provide for the well-fare of their members

✤ Economic sustainability: Ongoing ability of an economic system to provide for all human needs

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Societal Marketing

Sustainable Marketing

MARKETING PHILOSOPHIES

✤ Sustainable marketing concept expands marketing concept by making the need for sustainability more explicit

✤ Sustainable marketing is still based on creating a competitive advantage through superior performance in the meeting of consumers’ needs

✤ Social, political and environmental changes make sustainability a way to achieve a competitive advantage

SUSTAINABILITY AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE✤ Integrating sustainability into marketing

strategies

✤ allows a company to realize cost savings

✤ reduces a company’s exposure to regulatory and resource based risks

✤ spurs innovation to stay ahead of competition

✤ can reduce conflicts with retailers and business partners

✤ can improve a company’s reputation and positioning

✤ improves a company’s chances to recruit talented employees

✤ ➛ Sustainable marketing improves a company’s chances for long-term survival

WHY “DOING GOOD” BECOMES MORE IMPORTANT

✤ Changing value systems

✤ young people are “global, socially conscious consumers”

✤ Look for value instead of price

✤ Consumer empowerment ✤ Social web makes allows

consumers to expose unethical practices

✤ Mobile technologies allow consumers to shop according to their values at point-of-purchase

GREENWASHING✤ Making unsubstantiated or partial

sustainability claims ✤ Dawn: helping to save wildlife?

✤ Dawn donates soap to clean animals after oil spill and gives money to rescue groups

✤ But contains an antibacterial agent, called triclosan, that is toxic to aquatic life

✤ Greenwashing widespread, but on the retreat ✤ 2009: 2% of “green products” without greenwashing

✤ 2010: 4.5% of “green products” without greenwashing

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SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

✤ Integrate a sense of mission into the core of the business ✤ Window-dressing is not rewarded by

consumers

✤ Integrating social and environmental causes into products leads to long-term loyalty

✤ Financial gains by companies that integrated sustainability into their core businesses (e.g., Hain Celestial up 40% in 2013 due to rising consumer demand)

✤ Greening from the top, not only from the bottom

Green Walmart

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What is the problem with many green alternatives to conventional products?

Green marketing must satisfy consumers’ needs.

we are...

At method, we’re happy about what we do. Sometimes we’re even a little giddy. But when it comes to the effectiveness of our products, we’re dead serious. They work. How could we be happy if they didn’t? Our cleaners use powerful formulas made with naturally derived surfactants that work by dissolving and removing dirt. Our team of green chefs (aka formulation chemists + product designers), ensure that our products are not only highly innovative, but also highly effective.

Cleaning can be a chore. Stinging eyes, burning lungs and headaches aren’t just unfortunate side effects of a well-kept home. They’re warning signs. That’s your body telling you, “Don’t use this. This is bad for you.” Our greenskeeping team rigorously assesses every ingredient we use, so we can be completely sure of its safety. That’s why method’s entire product line is both people- and pet-friendly, specially formulated to put the hurt on dirt without harming a hair on you or your loved ones’ heads.

Most companies treat product design like it ain’t no thang. At method, we believe product design is a thang. It’s very much a thang. So when we were figuring out how to package our products, we enlisted world-renowned designer Joshua Handy to sculpt some of the finest pieces of recyclable plastic art this side of MoMA. Form, meet function. Function, form. You two play nice.

Some companies might think that ammonia or bleach is the fragrance of clean. At method, we’re for flowers. Also fruit. Maybe an herb here or there. We’ve noticed that some home products lead to rapid breath-holding and window-opening. But no one holds their breath while slicing a grapefruit. So we’ll stick with that.

We’re in business to change business. At method, we see our work as an amazing opportunity to redesign how cleaning products are made and used, and how businesses can integrate sustainability. Our challenge is to make sure that every product we send out into the world is a little agent of environmental change, using sustainable materials and manufactured responsibly. Little green soldiers in the battle of doing-well-by-doing-good, if you will. This is why we make our bottles from 100% recycled plastic, why we reduce and offset the carbon emitted by our business, why we never test on animals, why we design innovative products using natural, renewable ingredients, and why we’re transparent about the ingredients we use, how we make our products, and what our track record is as a green business.

when it comes down to it, we’re here to make products that work, for you and for the planet, ones that are as easy on the eyes as they are on the nose. it’s a tall order but we wouldn’t want to do anything else.

SUSTAINABLE+ MARKETING

✤ Don’t sacrifice immediate satisfaction for long-term benefits

✤ Salutary products: long-term beneficial, but not successful because of low immediate appeal

✤ Don’t focus on the “absence of negatives”, but on “green+design”, “green+technology” or “better designed products”

✤ Create desirable products that combine immediate satisfaction with long-term benefits

Green+

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✤ Product: packaged with ocean recycled plastic

✤ Communication: Focus on community building and changing people’s minds (collecting plastic event, blog, youtube, donation to collaborating environmental organizations)

Collaborate Greening

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CONCLUSION

✤ Non-sustainable marketing hurts a company’s relationships with consumers and its long-term survival

✤ Changing value systems and the empowerment of consumers will continue to increase the importance of sustainable marketing

✤ Combine short-term satisfaction with long-term benefits to be successful in marketing environmentally responsible products

✤ Marketing can be a part of the solution: You can contribute to sustainable marketing as an empowered consumer and an enlightened marketer / entrepreneur

Dr. Joachim Scholz ; Queen’s School of Business jscholz@business.queensu.ca joachim-scholz.com @joachimscholz n

thank you.

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